Obrázky stránek
PDF
ePub
[blocks in formation]

Clo. Master Malvolio!
Mal. Ay, good fool.

Clo. Alas, sir, how fell you besides your five wits? Mal. Fool, there was never man so notoriously abused: I am as well in my wits, fool, as thou art. Clo. But as well? then you are mad, indeed, if you be no better in your wits than a fool.

Mal. They have here propertied me ; keep me in darkness, send ministers to me, asses, and do all they can to face me out of my wits.

Clo. Advise you what you say: the minister is here,-Malvolio, Malvolio, thy wits the heavens restore! endeavour thyself to sleep, and leave thy vain bibble babble.

Mal. Sir Topas,

Clo. Maintain no words with him, good fellow.
-Who, I, sir? not I, sir. God b'wi'you, good
Sir Topas.-Marry, amen.-I will, sir, I will.
Mal. Fool, fool, fool, I say.-
Clo. Alas, sir, be patient. What say you, sir?
I am shent for speaking to you.

Mal. Good fool, help me to some light, and some paper; I tell thee, I am as well in my wits as any man in Illyria.

Clo. Well-a-day,-that you were, sir! Mal. By this hand, I am: Good fool, some ink, paper, and light, and convey what I will set down to my lady; it shall advantage thee more than ever the bearing of letter did.

This pearl she gave me, I do feel't and see't:
And though 'tis wonder that enwraps me thus,
Yet 'tis not madness. Where's Antonio then?
I could not find him at the Elephant:
Yet there he was; and there I found this credit,
That he did range the town to seek me out.
His counsel now might do me golden service:
For though my soul disputes well with my sense,
That this may be some error, but no madness,

Yet doth this accident and flood of fortune
So far exceed all instance, all discourse,"
That I am ready to distrust mine eyes,
And wrangle with my reason, that persuades me
To any other trust, but that I am mad,
Or else the lady's mad; yet, if 'twere so,
She could not sway her house, command her fol-
lowers,

Take, and give back affairs, and their despatch,
With such a smooth, discreet, and stable bearing,
As, I perceive, she does: there's something in't,
That is deceivable.” But here the lady comes.

Enter OLIVIA and a Priest.

Oli. Blame not this haste of mine: If you mean
well,

Now, go with me, and with this holy man,
And underneath that consecrated roof,
Into the chantry10 by: there, before him,
Plight me the full assurance of your faith;
That my most jealous and too doubtful soul
May live at peace: He shall conceal it,
Whiles11 you are willing it shall come to note;
What time we will our celebration keep
According to my birth. What do you say?
Seb. I'll follow this good man, and go with you;
And, having sworn truth,12 ever will be true.
Oli. Then lead the way, good father:-
heavens so shine,

--And

That they may fairly note this act of mine! [Exeunt.

ACT V.

Clo. I will help you to't. But tell me true, are you not mad, indeed? or do you but counterfeit ? Mal. Believe me, I am not; I tell thee true. Clo. Nay, I'll ne'er believe a madman till I see SCENE I. The Street before Olivia's House. his brains. I will fetch you light, and paper, and ink.

[blocks in formation]

Enter Clown and FABIAN. Fab. Now, as thou lovest me, let me see his letter. Clo. Good master Fabian, grant me another re

quest.

Fab. Any thing.

Clo. Do not desire to see this letter.

Fab. That is, to give a dog, and, in recompense, desire my dog again.

Enter DUKE, VIOLA, and Attendants.
Duke. Belong you to the lady Olivia, friends?
Clo. Ay, sir; we are some of her trappings.
Duke. I know thee well: How dost thou, my
good fellow?

Clo. Truly, sir, the better for my foes, and the worse for my friends.

Duke. Just the contrary; the better for thy friends.
Clo. No, sir, the worse.

Duke. How can that be?

Clo. Marry sir, they praise me, and make an ass the catastrophe. See Note on K. Henry V. Act. iv. Sc. 4.

6 i. e. intelligence. Mr. Steevens has referred to several passages which seem to imply that this word was used for oral intelligence. I find it thus in a letter from Elizabeth to Sir Nicholas Throckmorton among the Conway Papers. This beror came from you with great spede-We have heard his eredit and fynd your carefulness and diligence very great.'

7 i. e. reason. 8 Servants. 9 i. e. deceptious.

10 Chantry,' a little chapel, or particular altar in some cathedral or parochial church, endowed for the purpose of having masses sung therein for the souls of the founders.

11 Until,

5 The vice was the fool of the old moralities. He was grotesquely dressed in a cap with ass's ears, a long coat, and a dagger of lath. One of his chief employments was to make sport with the devil, leaping on his back and belabouring him with his dagger, till he made him roar. The devil, however, always carried him off in the end. The moral was, that sin, which 12 Troth or fidelity. It should be remarked that this has the courage to make very merry with the devil, and was not an actual marriage, but a betrothing, affianc is allowed by him to take very great liberties, musting, or solemn promise of future marriage; anciently finally become his prey. This used also to be the regu- distinguished by the name of espousals. This has been lar end of Punch in the puppet show (who was the legi-established by Mr. Douce in his very interesting Illustimate successor of the old vice or iniquity,) until mo-trations of Shakspeare, where the reader will find much dern innovation, in these degenerate times, reversed curious matter on the subject, in a note on this passage.

of me; now my foes tell me plainly I am an ass:
so that by my foes, sir, I profit in the knowledge of
myself; and by my friends I am abused: so that,
conclusions to be as kisses, if your four negatives
make your two affirmatives,' why, then the worse
for my friends, and the better for my foes.
Duke. Why, this is excellent.

Clo. By my troth, sir, no; though it please you to be one of my friends.

Duke. Thou shalt not be the worse for me; there's gold.

Clo. But that it would be double-dealing, sir, I would you could make it another.

Duke. O, you give me ill counsel.

Clo. Put your grace in your pocket, sir, for this once, and let your flesh and blood obey it. Duke. Well, I will be so much a sinner to be a double-dealer; there's another.

Clo. Primo, secundo, tertio, is a good play; and the old saying is, the third pays for all; the triplex, sir, is a good tripping measure; or the bells of St. Bennet, sir, may put you in mind; One, two, three. Duke. You can fool no more money out of me at this throw if you will let your lady know, here to speak with her, and bring her along with you, it may awake my bounty further.

am

Clo. Marry, sir, lullaby to your bounty, till I come again. I go, sir; but I would not have you to think, that my desire of having is the sin of covetousness; but, as you say, sir, let your bounty take a nap, I will awake it anon. [Exit Clown.

Enter ANTONIO and Officers.

Vio. Here comes the man, sir, that did rescue me.
Duke. That face of his I do remember well;
Yet, when I saw it last, it was besmear'd
As black as Vulcan, in the smoke of war:

A bawbling vessel was he captain of,
For shallow draught, and bulk, unprizable:
With which such scathful grapple did he make
With the most noble bottom of our fleet,
That very envy, and the tongue of loss,
Cry'd fame and honour on him.-What's the matter?
10. Orsino, this is that Antonio

That took the Phoenix and her fraught,3 from Candy:
And this is he that did the Tiger board,
When your young nephew Titus lost his leg:
Here in the streets, desperate of shame and state,
In private brabble did we apprehend him.
Vis. He did me kindness, sir; drew on my side;
But, in conclusion, put strange speech upon me,
I know not what 'twas, but distraction.

Duke. Notable pirate! thou salt-water thief!
What foolish boldness brought thee to their mercies,
Whom thou, in terms so bloody, and so dear,
Hast made thine enemies?

Aat.

Orsino, noble sir,
Be pleas'd that I shake off these names you give me
Antonio never yet was thief, or pirate,
Though, I confess, on base and ground enough,
Orsino's enemy. A witchcraft drew me hither:
That most ingrateful boy there, by your side,
From the rude sea's enrag'd and foamy mouth
Did I redeem: a wreck past hope he was:
His life I gave him, and did thereto add
My love, without retention or restraint,
All his in dedication: for his sake,

1 So, in Marlowe's Lust's Dominion :-
Come let's kisse.

Moor. Away, away.

4 Inattentive to his character or condition, like a desperate man.

Did I expose myself, pure for his love,
Into the danger of this adverse town;
Drew to defend him, when he was beset;
Where being apprehended, his false cunning
(Not meaning to partake with me in danger,)
Taught him to face me out of his acquaintance,
And grew a twenty-years-removed thing,
While one would wink; denied me mine own purse,
Which I had recommended to his use
Not half an hour before.
Vio.
How can this be?
Duke. When came he to this town?
Ant. To-day, my lord ; and for three months before
(No interim, not a minute's vacancy,)
Both day and night did we keep company.

Enter OLIVIA and Attendants.

Duke. Here comes the countess; now heaven
walks on earth..
But for thee, fellow, fellow, thy words are madness:
Three months this youth hath tended upon me;

But more of that anon.

-Take him aside.
Oli. What would my lord, but that he may not
have,

Cesario, you do not keep promise with me.
Wherein Olivia may seem serviceable?--

Vio. Madam?

Duke. Gracious Olivia,-
Oli. What do you say,

lord,

Cesario?--Good my

[blocks in formation]

Oli. Still so constant, lord.

Duke. What! to perverseness? you uncivil lady,
To whose ingrate and unauspicious altars
My soul the faithfull'st offerings hath breath'd out,
That e'er devotion tender'd! What shall I do?
Oli. Even what it please my lord, that shall be-
come him.

Duke. Why should I not, had I the heart to do it,
Like the Egyptian thief," at point of death,
Kill what I love; a savage jealousy,
That sometimes savours nobly?-But hear me this:
Since you to non-regardance cast my faith,
And that I partly know the instrument
That screws me from my true place in your favour,
Live you, the marble-breasted tyrant, still;
But this your minion, whom, I know, you love,
And whom, by heaven, I swear, I tender dearly,
Him will I tear out of that cruel
eye,
Where he sits crowned in his master's spite.-
Come boy with me; my thoughts are ripe in
mischief:

I'll sacrifice the lamb that I do love,

[Going.

; To spite a raven's heart within a dove.
Vio. And I, most jocund, apt, and willingly,
To do you rest, a thousand deaths would die.

[Following.

Oli. Where goes Cesario?
Vio.
After him I love,
More than I love these eyes, more than my life,
More, by all mores, than e'er I shall love wife:
If I do feign, you witnesses above,
Punish my life for tainting of my love!

Oli. Ah me, detested! how am I beguil❜d!

chief of a band of robbers. Theogenes and Chariclea falling into their hands, Thyamis falls in love with ChaQueen. No, no, says I; and twice away says stay.riclea, and would have married her. But, being attackSir Philip Sidney has enlarged upon the thought in the ed by a stronger band of robbers, he was in such fear Sixty-third Stanza of Astrophel and Stella. for his mistress that he causes her to be shut into a cave 2 Mischievous, destructive. 3 Freight. with his treasure. It was customary with those barbarians, when they despaired of their own safety, first to make away with those whom they held most dear, and Tooke has so admirably accounted for the appli-desired for companions in the next life. Thyamis, cation of the epithet dear by our ancient writers to any therefore, benetted round with enemics, raging with object which excites a sensation of hurt, pain, and con- love, jealousy, and anger, went to his cave, and calling sequently of anxiety, solicitude, care, earnestness, aloud in the Egyptian tongue, so soon as he heard himthat I shall refer to it as the best comment upon the ap-self answered towards the cave's mouth by a Grecian, parently opposite uses of the word in our great poet. making to the person by the direction of her voice, he caught her by the hair with his left hand, and (suppos 7 This Egyptian Thief was Thyamis. The storying her to be Chariclea) with his right hand plunged his is related in the Aethiopics of Heliodorus. He was the sword into her breast.

6 Dull, gross.

Vlo. Who does beguile you? who does do you | Enter SIR TOBY BELCH, drunk, led by the Clown. wrong? Here comes Sir Toby halting, you shall hear more: but if he had not been in drink, he would have tickled you othergates than he did.

Duke.

Oli. Hast thou forgot thyself! Is it so long!Call forth the holy father. [Exit an Attendant. Come away. [TO VIOLA. Oli. Whither, my lord?-Cesario, husband, stay. Duke. Husband! Oli.

Ay, husband; Can he that deny? Duke. Her husband, sirrah? Vio.

No, my lord, not I. Oli. Alas, it is the baseness of thy fear, That makes thee strangle thy propriety: Fear not, Cesario, take thy fortunes up; Be that thou know'st thou art, and then thou art As great as that thou fear'st,-O, welcome father!

Re-enter Attendant and Priest.

Father, I charge thee by thy reverence,
Here to unfold (though lately we intended
To keep in darkness, what occasion now
Reveals before 'tis ripe,) what thou dost know,
Hath newly past between this youth and me.

Priest. A contract of eternal bond of love.
Confirm'd by mutual joinder of your hands,
Attested by the holy close of lips,

Strengthen'd by interchangement of your rings;2 And all the ceremony of this compact

Seal'd in my function, by my testimony:

Duke. How now, gentleman? how is't with you Sir To. That's all one; he has hurt me, and there's an end on't.-Sot, didst see Dick surgeon, sot?

his

Clo. O he's drunk, Sir Toby, an hour agone; eyes were set at eight i'the morning. Sir To. Then he's a rogue and a passy-measures pavin; I hate a drunken rogue.

Oli. Away with him: Who hath made this ha vock with them?

Sir And. I'll help you, Sir Toby, because we'll be dressed together.

Sir To. Will you help?-An ass-head, and a coxcomb, and a knave? a thin-faced knave, a gull? Oli. Get him to bed and let his hurt be look'd to. [Exeunt Clown, SIR TOBY, and SIR ANDREW. Enter SEBASTIAN.

Seb. I am sorry, madam, I have hurt

[blocks in formation]

your king

I must have done no less, with wit and safety. You throw a strange regard upon me, and

Since when, my watch hath told me, toward my By that I do perceive it hath offended you;

grave

I have travell'd but two hours.

Duke. O, thou dissembling cub! what wilt thou be, When time hath sow'd a grizzle on thy case ?3 Or will not else thy craft so quickly grow, That thine own trip shall be thine overthrow? Farewell, and take her; but direct thy feet, Where thou and I henceforth may never meet. Vio. My lord, I do protest,Oli. O, do not swear; Hold little faith, though thou hast too much fear. Enter SIR ANDRew Ague-cheeK, with his head

broke.

[blocks in formation]

Sir And. He has broke my head across, and has given Sir Toby a bloody coxcomb too: for the love of God, your help: I had rather than forty pound, I were at home.

Oli. Who has done this, Sir Andrew?

Sir And. The count's gentleman, one Cesario: we took him for a coward, but he's the very devil incardinate.

Duke. My gentleman, Cesario?

Sir And. Od's lifelings, here he is :-You broke my head for nothing; and that that I did, I was set on to do't by Sir Toby.

Vio. Why do you speak to me? I never hurt you: You drew your sword upon me, without cause; But I bespake you fair, and hurt you not.

Sir And. If a bloody coxcomb be a hurt, you have hurt me; think you set nothing by a bloody coxcomb.

1 i. c. suppress, or disown thy property. 2 In ancient espousals the man received as well as gave a ring.

8 So, in Cary's Present State of England, 1626. Queen Elizabeth asked a knight named Young, how he liked a company of brave ladies? He answered, as I like my silver haired conies at home, the cases are far better than the bodies.'

4 Otherways.

5 The parin was a grave Spanish dance. Sir John Hawkins derives it from paro a peacock, and says that every pavin had its galliard, a lighter kind of air formcd out of the former. Thus, in Middleton's More Dissemblers beside Women:

'I can dance nothing but ill favour'dly, A strain or two of passe measures gulliard, By which it appears that the passe measure puran, and the passe measure galliard were only two different measures of one dance. Sir Toby therefore means by this quaint expression that the surgeon is a rogue and a

Pardon me, sweet one, even for the vows
We made each other but so late ago.

Duke. One face, one voice one habit, and two

persons;

A natural perspective, that is, and is not.
Seb. Antonio! O, my dear Antonio,
How have the hours rack'd and tortur'd me,
Since I have lost thee.

Ant. Sebastian are you?

Seb. Fear'st thou that, Antonio? Ant. How have you made division of yourself?— Than these two creatures. An apple, cleft in two, is not more twin Which is Sebastian?

Oli. Most wonderful!
Seb. Do I stand there? I never had a brother;
Nor can there be that deity in my nature,
Of here and every where. I had a sister,
Whom the blind waves and surges have devour'd:-
of charity," what kin are you to me? [To VIOLA.
What countryman? what name? what parentage?
Vio. Of Messaline: Sebastian was my father;
Such a Sebastian was my brother too,
So went he suited to his watery tomb:
If spirits can assume both form and suit,
You come to fright us.

Seb.
A spirit I am, indeed;
But am in that dimension grossly clad,
Which from the womb I did participate.
Were you a woman, as the rest goes even,
I should my tears let fall upon your cheek,
And say-Thrice welcome, drowned Viola!

Vio. My father had a mole upon his brow.
Seb. And so had mine.

grave solemn corcomb. In the first act of the play he has shown himself well acquainted with the various kinds of dance. Shakspeare's characters are always consistent, and even in drunkenness preserve the traits of character which distinguished them when sober.

6 A perspective formerly meant a glass that assisted the sight in any way. The several kinds in use in Shakspeare's time are enumerated in Scot's Discoverie of Witchcraft, 1584, b. xiii. c. 19, where that alluded to by the Duke is thus described: There be glasses also wherein one man may see another man's image and not his own'-that optical illusion may be meant, which is called anamorphosis:- where that which is, is not,' or appears, in a different position, another thing. may also explain a passage in Henry V. Act v. Sc. 2: "Yes, my lord, you see them perspectively, the cities turned into a maid. Vide also K. Richard II. Act ii. Se1, and note there :

'Like perspectives, which rightly gazed upon
Show nothing, but confusion, cy'd awry
Distinguish form.'

7 Out of charity, tell me.

This

Vis. Anied that day when Viola from her birth Had number'a thirteen years.

Seb. O, that record is lively in my soul!
He finished, indeed, his mortal act,
That day that made my sister thirteen years.
Vio. If nothing lets to make us happy both,
But this my masculine usurp'd attire,
Do not embrace me, till each circumstance
Of place, time, fortune, do cohere, and jump,
That I am Viola: which to confirm,
I'll bring you to a captain in this town,
Where lie my maiden weeds; by whose gentle help
I was preserv'd, to serve this noble count:
All the occurrence of my fortune since
Hath been between this lady, and this lord.
Seb. So comes it, lady, you have been mistook :
[TO OLIVIA.

But nature to her bias drew in that.
You would have been contracted to a maid;
Nor are you therein, by my life, deceived,
You are betroth'd both to a maid and man.
Duke. Be not amaz'd; right noble is his blood.-
If this be so, as yet the glass seems true,
I shall have share in this most happy wreck:
Boy, thou hast said to me a thousand times,

[To VIOLA.

Thou never shouldst love woman like to me.
Vio. And all those sayings will I over-swear;
And all those swearings keep as true in soul,
As doth that orbed continent the fire
That severs day from night.

Duke.

Hath

Give me thy hand; And let me see thee in thy woman's weeds. Vio. The captain, that did bring me first on shore my maid's garments: he, upon some action, Is now in durance, at Malvolio's suit, A gentleman and follower of my lady's. O. He shall enlarge him:-Fetch Malvolio

hither:

And yet, alas, now I remember me,
They say, poor gentleman, he's much distract.
Re-enter Clown, with a letter.

A most extracting frenzy of mine own
From my remembrance clearly banish'd his.-
How does he, sirrah?

Clo. Truly, madam, he holds Belzebub at the stave's end, as well as a man in his case may do; he has here writ a letter to you, I should have given it to you to-day morning; but as a madman's epistles are no gospels, so it skills not much when they are delivered.

Ga. Open it, and read it.

Clo. Look then to be well edified, when the fool delivers the madman :-By the lord, Madam,Oli. How now! art thou mad?

Clo. No, madam, I do but read madness: an your ladyship will have it as it ought to be, you

must allow vor.

4

Oli. Pr'ythee, read i'thy right wits. Clo. So I do, madonna; but to read his right wits, is to read thus: therefore perpend, my princess, and give ear. Oli. Read it you, sirrah. [TO FABIAN. Fab. [Reads] By the Lord, madam, you wrong me, and the world shall know it: though you have put me into darkness, and given your drunken cousin rule over me, yet have I the benefit of my senses as well as your ladyship. I have your own letter that induced me to the semblance I put on ; with the which I doubt not but to do myself much right, or you much shame. Think of me as you please. I leave my duty a little unthought of, and speak out of my injury. The madly-used Malvolio.

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

on,

To think me as well a sister as a wife,
One day shall crown the alliance on't, so please you,
Here at my house, and at my proper cost.

Duke. Madam, I am most apt to embrace your offer.

Your master quits you [To VIOLA ;] and, for your service done him,

So much against the mettles of your sex,
So far beneath your soft and tender breeding,
And since you call'd me master for so long,
Here is my hand; you shall from this time bo
Your master's mistress.

Oli.

A sister?-you are she.

[blocks in formation]

letter:

You must not now deny it is your hand,
Write from it, if you can, in hand, or phrase;
You can say none of this: Well, grant it then,
Or say 'tis not your seal, nor your invention:
And tell me, in the modesty of honour,

Why you have given me such clear lights of favour;
To put on yellow stockings, and to frown
Bade me come smiling, and cross-garter'd to you,
Upon Sir Toby, and the lighter people:
And, acting this in an obedient hope,
Why have you suffer'd me to be imprison'd,
Kept in a dark house, visited by the priest,
And made the most notorious geck," and gull,
That e'er invention played on? tell me why.

Oli. Alas, Malvolio, this is not my writing,
Though, I confess, much like the character:
And now I do bethink me, it was she
But, out of question, 'tis Maria's hand.
First told me, thou wast mad: then cam'st in
smiling,

And in such forms which here were presuppos'd
Upon thee in the letter. Pr'ythee, be content:
But, when we know the grounds and authors of it,
This practice hath most shrewdly pass'd upon thee;
Thou shalt be both the plaintiff and the judge
Of thine own cause.

Fab.

And let no quarrel, nor no brawl to come,
Good madam, hear me speak;
Taint the condition of this present hour,
Most freely I confess, myself, and Toby,
Which I have wonder'd at. In hope it shall not,
Set this device against Malvolio here,
Upon some stubborn and uncourteous parts
The letter, at Sir Toby's great importance ;10
We had conceiv'd against him: Maria writ
How with a sportful malice it was follow'd,
In recompense whereof, he hath married her.
May rather pluck on laughter than revenge;
If that the injuries be justly weigh'd,
That have on both sides past.

Oli. Alas, poor fool! how have they baffled11 thee! Clo. Why, some are born great, some achieve greatthem. I ness, and some have greatness thrown upon

7 Fool.

8 Thou is here understood: then cam'st thou in smiling.'

9 Practice is a deceit, an insidious stratagem. So in the Induction to the Taming of the Shrew.

Sirs, I will practise on this drunken man.' 10 Importanacy.

11 Bued is cheated. See Note on the first Scene of K. Rich. II.

was one, sir, in this interlude; one Sir Topas, sir;
but that's all one :-By the Lord, fool, I am not
mad. But do you remember? Madam, why laugh
you at such a barren rascal? an you smile not, he's
gagg'd: And thus the whirligig of time brings in
his revenges.

Mal. I'll be revenged on the whole pack of you.
[Exit.
Oli. He hath been most notoriously abus'd.
Duke. Pursue him, and entreat him to a peace :-
He hath not told us of the captain yet;
When that is known and golden time convents,'
A solemn combination shall be made

Of our dear souls.-Mean time, sweet sister,
We will not part from hence-Cesario, come,
For so you shall be, while you are a man;
But, when in other habits you are seen,
Orsino's mistress, and his fancy's queen. [Exeunt.
SONG.

Clo. When that I was a little tiny boy,

With hey, ho, the wind and the rain, A foolish thing was but a toy,

For the rain it raineth every day.

But when I came to man's estate, With hey, ho, the wind and the rain, 1 1. e. Shall serve, agree, be convenient.

'Gainst knaves and thieves men shut their gate,
For the rain it raineth every day.

But when I came, alas! to wive,
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
By swaggering could I never thrive,
For the rain it raineth every day,

But when I came unto my bed,

With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
With toss-pots still had drunken head,
For the rain it raineth every day.

A great while ago the world begun,
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
But that's all one, our play is done,
And we'll strive to please you every day.

【Ezit.

and

This play is in the graver part elegant and easy, in some of the lighter scenes exquisitely humorous. Ague-cheek is drawn with great propriety, but his character is, in a great measure, that of natural fatuity, and is therefore not the proper prey of a satirist. The soli loquy of Malvolio is truly comic; he is betrayed to ridicule merely by his pride. The marriage of Ólivia, and the succeeding perplexity, though well enough contriv ed to divert on the stage, wants credibility, and fails to produce the proper instruction required in the drama, as it exhibits no just picture of life. JOHNSON

MEASURE FOR MEASURE.

PRELIMINARY REMARKS.

SHAKSPEARE took the fable of this play from the Promos and Cassandra of George Whetstone, published, in 1578, of which this is The Argument."

special case, although he favoured her much, would not grant her suit. Andrugio (disguised among the company,) sorrowing the grief of his sister, bewrayed his safety, and craved pardon. The king to renown the virtues of Cassandra, pardoned both him and Promos. The circumstances of this rare history, in action lively followeth.'

forthwith he hasted to do justice on Promos: whose judgment was to marry Cassandra, to repair her crased honour; which done, for his heinous offence, he should In the city of Julio (sometimes under the dominion lose his head. This marriage solemnized, Cassandra of Corvinus King of Hungary and Bohemia,) there was tied in the greatest bonds of affection to her husband, a law, that what man soever committed adultery should became an earnest suitor for his life: the king tender. lose his head, and the woman offender should wearing the general benefit of the commonweal before her some disguised apparel, during her life, to make her infamously noted. This severe law, by the favour of some merciful magistrate, became little regarded, until the time of Lord Promos's authority; who convicting a young gentleman named Andrugio of incontinency, condemned both him and his minion to the execution of this statute. Andrugio had a very virtuous and beautiful gentlewoman to his sister, named Cassandra. Cassandra, to enlarge her brother's life, submitted an humble petition to the Lord Promos. Promos regarding her good behaviour, and fantasying her great beauty, was much delighted with the sweet order of her talk; and doing good, that evil might come thereof, for a time he reprieved her brother: but, wicked man, turning his liking into unlawful lust; he set down the spoil of her honour, ransom for her brother's life: chaste Cassandra, abhorring both him and his suit, by no persuasion would yield to this ransom. But in fine, won by the importunity of her brother (pleading for life,) upon these conditions she agreed to Promos: First, that he should pardon her brother, and after marry her. Promos, as fearless in promise, as careless in performance, with solemn vow signed her conditions; but worse than any infidel, his will satisfied, he performed neither the one nor the other for to keep his authority unspotted with favour, and to prevent Cassandra's clamours, he commanded the jailer secretly to present Cassandra with her brother's head. The jailer [touched] with the outeries of Andrugio (abhorring Promos's lewdness,) by the providence of God provided thus for his safety. He presented Cassandra with a felon's head newly executed; who knew it not, being mangled, from her brother's (who was set at liberty by the jailer.) [She] was so aggrieved at this treachery, that, at the point to kill herself, she spared that stroke to be avenged of Promos: and devising a way, she concluded, to make her fortunes known to the king. She, executing this resolution, was so highly favoured of the king, that

Whetstone, however, has not afforded a very correct analysis of his play, which contains a mixture of comic scenes, between a bawd, a pimp, felons, &c. together with some serious situations which are not described. A hint, like a seed, is more or less prolific, according to the qualities of the soil on which it is thrown. This story, which in the hands of Whetstone produced little more than barren insipidity, under the culture of Shakspeare became fertile of entertainment. The curious reader may see the old play of Promos and Cassandra among Six old plays on which Shakspeare founded, &c.' published by Mr. Steevens, printed for 8. Leacroft, Charing Cross. The piece exhibits an almost complete embryo of Measure for Measure; yet the hints on which it is formed are so slight, that it is nearly as im possible to detect them, as it is to point out in the acorn the future ramifications of the oak. The story origi. nally came from the 'Hecatommithi' of Cinthio. Decad 8, novel 5, and is repeated in the Tragic Histories of Belleforest.

"This play," says Mr. Hazlitt, "is as full of genius as it is of wisdom. Yet there is an original sin in the nature of the subject, which prevents us from taking a cordial interest in it. 'The height of moral argument,' which the author has maintained in the intervals of passion, or blended with the more powerful impulses of nature, is hardly surpassed in any of his plays. But there is a general want of passion, the affections are at a stand; our sympathies are repulsed and defeated in all directions."

Isabella is a lovely example of female purity and vi

« PředchozíPokračovat »